Ismail Sirdah
To start off, you need to get the right camera for underwater photography. You should read the camera manual to understand the camera’s underwater settings. There is a lot of information that you need to know on how to operate a camera underwater; make sure you are conversant with the camera settings. If you are planning to purchase a housing of the camera or the camera itself, get to an underwater equipment store and ask for assistance on the best camera to purchase with respect to your budget.
Are you ready to go for underwater photography?
Now you have purchased an (UW) underwater camera, let’s dive in. But first, Ismail Sirdah recommends that you have to be good at swimming. It can be distracting to use a camera, and it can even be easy to crash into a reef or even float to the surface without your knowledge. Before you get into the water, it is important to practice using your camera in a dimly lit room. Take some shots while your camera is in a housing and it is in macro mode with flash on. Take some photos of some tiny objects, and check to see how your photos appear. Use macro mode on/off to test your camera’s range.
Advice for first time underwater photographers
Below are some tips that Ismail Sirdah advises you to know before getting into the water:
- To get good photos most of the time, you will need to have the flash mode on with 3 to 4 ft distance between the subject and yourself. Ensure that you have the flash mode at “forced flash” and not to “auto flash”. If you don’t put this setting, your photos will look blue, but with the flash on, your photos will have color.
- You want your camera to be in a macro mode to capture good photos. Ensure that you know how to set the macro mode on and off. For most cameras, the range will be between 2 inches and 2 feet; if you get any closer, you won’t be able to take a photo. If you go far away, the macro mode will turn off. Ensure that you are zoomed out in this case.
- If you are 2 to 3 ft in front of an object, turn on your internal flash. If you are 3ft away, turn off the internal flash. If you encounter a fast sea animal like a mantra ray or a shark, get within a 3 ft radius and use the flash or else your photo will turn out blue. When using the camera’s internal flash, use an auto-white balance.
- Avoid using underwater mode or “cloudy” white balance with your strobe/flash, because the net effect be reddish/orange pictures. Use aperture priority, full or auto custom mode depending on the camera’s comfort level.
- Ensure that you start out with a zoomed out camera because it has an effect on the way you focus, especially if you have the camera set to macro mode. If you decide to zoom in, you will not have a good opportunity to focus as close as you should be to the sea creature, and it will be counter macro mode. The best strategy is getting as near as you can to the subject.
- When taking a photos, try to get a few inches closer to the sea animal and stay at the eye level. Focus on the eyes and try to get the subject to look at you.
- If you take photos when the flash is off, subjects are usually more than 3 ft away; you will be using natural light, and you want to have better color. To achieve this goal, you have to either set your camera to underwater mode, or you can set the UW camera to manual white balance.
- If you have the flash on and you take a picture of a subject that is more than 3 ft away, do not be shocked to see backscatter pics, unless you are taking shots in very clear water. To solve this, you have to get really close to the subject, or you use an external strobe.
- Always remember that the closer you are to a subject, the better the sharpness, the contrast and the color.
- Ensure that you have a housing that has a “flash diffuser,” even though some housing has it inbuilt. The work of the diffuser is to soften the light because it is placed in front of the internal flash.
- Always plan on getting an external strobe to improve the quality of your photos. To make use of the strobe, you have to be in control of the aperture of the camera and still be in control of the strobe’s power.
- Remember to take some practice shots indoors where you can test all your settings. Everything that you work on indoors will be similar to how it works underwater. Although it will be easy to focus indoors and to use the strobe, ensure that you practice before going underwater.